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SHAFR Opinion

The McChrystal Affair: Pity the Poor Historian

by Michael Hunt

Crossposted from Michael Hunt’s Washington and the World blog.
There is good reason to pity the poor historian, who has been tested especially severely during the recent McChrystal-Obama imbroglio as the eruption of historical parallels and lessons have ranged from the wrong-headed to the off-kilter.
Henry Kissinger is a good example of the wrong-headed. This policy heavyweight, [...]

LGBT Equality and The Limits of Human Rights

by Laura Belmonte

Last October, a bill was introduced in the Ugandan parliament that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment or even death.  The bill also calls for the extradition of Ugandans who engage in homosexual sex in other countries and for criminal penalties for individuals, media, or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and [...]

Thinking about Remembering

by Molly Wood

I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and even though I have not lived there for many years, I still visit regularly. I often think that my decision to become a historian stems in part from the stories of my family history told to me by grandparents and other relatives. I learned from my grandmother, for [...]

Germany to Greece: Drop Dead

by William Glenn Gray

Germans have chosen to work; Greeks have chosen leisure. For this reason, Germans are furious with Greece for accumulating an unsustainable debt burden and thereby undermining the solidity of the European currency. But the self-righteous anger in Berlin may itself call into question the political basis of the Euro.

Diplomats Among Warriors

by John Prados

In Afghanistan at the moment (February 2010), U.S. Marines, allied troops, and Afghan government soldiers are embarked on an offensive at a town called Marja in Helmand province. American commander-in-chief General Stanley A. McChrystal here makes the first expression of the strategy that underlies the appeal for reinforcements that led to the Obama administration “surge” [...]

Is Wartime a Time to End Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?

by Mary Dudziak

As the Obama Administration moves (slowly) toward repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, one argument in opposition is that the nation is at war, and significant changes in the military should not take place during wartime. One response to that point is that all hands are needed during heightened military deployments, and it harms American [...]

Beware Presidents’ Use of History

by John Prados

We are told that history plays as tragedy and repeats as farce. But perhaps that is changing. In the summer of 2007 President George W. Bush invoked the Vietnam analogy to justify an equally or more tragic war in Iraq. And in the West Point speech announcing his new strategy for Afghanistan, President Barack Obama [...]

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Posts Tagged ‘Middle East’

Weekly Digest — 4/26/09

by Jared Regan
Sunday, April 26th, 2009

Historical thinking about current foreign relations:
Problems with International human rights treaties. UN conference on racism vs. 1975. People and ideas influence events, but geography largely determines them. Should U.S. government increase use of sharia. World Bank and IMF.

The Cold War and Post-Cold War Worlds: Continuities in Grand Strategy

by William Stueck
Friday, March 6th, 2009

I had the good fortune recently to participate in a conference at Duke University sponsored by the Triangle Institute for Strategic Studies. Each of the five sessions featured a paper on the reassessments of U.S. grand strategy that occurred in the aftermath of one of America’s wars from World War II to the present–World War II, [...]

Weekly Digest — 2/12/09

by Jared Regan
Thursday, February 12th, 2009

Historical thinking about current foreign relations:
Is Zimbabwe Now a Rogue State? U.S. and Western military officials are calling on Iran to help stabilize Afghanistan. France’s return to NATO’s integrated military command. Obama’s new even-handedness with the Middle East. Liberal hawks focused too much on the justice of going to war. Al Qaeda has banded with the Taliban to create the Shadow Army.